Electronic Procurement of Transportation Services: An Evaluation Concept for Electronic Transportation Marketplaces

Description

This book deals with the electronic procurement of transportation services. It provides an overview of the fundamentals for the procurement of transportation services, including the relevant objectives, involved parties, and processes. A focus is set on Electronic Transportation Marketplaces (ETMs) which offer main functionalities for the procurement of transportation services on the spot and contract market as well as additional functionalities to improve further processes (e.g., time-slot management). Even though such marketplaces are important from an economic and ecological perspective, previous research provides only little knowledge about the status quo of their use, the determinants of marketplace use and the link between this use and business value. To close these research gaps, Philipp Sylla builds a comprehensive conceptual research framework and conducts an empirical analysis based on a web survey of shippers in Germany. The empirical results build the foundation for the development of an evaluation concept that provides practical support for shippers in the assessment of marketplace use and the evaluation of potential business value impacts. Foreword Preface Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 1.1 Problem Statement 1.2 Previous Research and Research Gaps 1.3 Purpose, Research Questions, and Structure 2 Fundamentals for the Procurement of Transportation Services 2.1 Transportation and Logistics 2.1.1 Basic Definitions and Positioning 2.1.2 Transportation within Business Logistics 2.2 Basics of Road Transportation 2.2.1 Justification for the Focus on Road Transportation 2.2.2 Vehicles and Logistics Units 2.2.3 Processes 2.3 Procurement of Transportation Services 2.3.1 Objectives 2.3.2 Involved Parties 2.3.3 Procurement Processes 3 Electronic Transportation Marketplaces 3.1 Basic Terminology 3.1.1 E-procurement and Related Terms 3.1.2 Electronic Marketplaces 3.1.3 Electronic Transportation Marketplaces 3.2 Historical Development 3.3 Classification 3.3.1 Participants 3.3.2 Nature of Exchanged Transportation Services 3.3.3 Ownership and Bias 3.4 Definition of the Term for This Work 3.4.1 Definition 3.4.2 Demarcations 3.5 Functionalities 3.5.1 Main Functionalities 3.5.2 Additional Functionalities 4 Conceptual Research Framework 4.1 Background 4.1.1 Objectives 4.1.2 Contingency Approach as the Theoretical Foundation 4.1.3 Structure and Further Procedure 4.2 Design Variables 4.2.1 Identification of Design Variable Dimensions 4.2.2 Dimension 1: System Use 4.2.3 Dimension 2: Relationship to ETMs 4.2.4 Summary: Overview of Design Variables 4.3 Contextual Variables 4.3.1 Identification of Contextual Variable Dimensions 4.3.2 Dimension 1: Purchasing Situation 4.3.3 Dimension 2: ETM Properties 4.3.4 Summary: Conceptual Insights for RQ2 4.4 Success Variables 4.4.1 Identification of Success Variable Dimensions 4.4.2 Dimension 1: Organizational Performance 4.4.3 Dimension 2: Business Process Performance 4.4.4 Links of Success Variables 4.4.5 Summary: Conceptual Insights for RQ3 4.5 Summary of the Conceptual Research Framework 5 Empirical Analysis 5.1 Preliminary Study 5.1.1 Objectives 5.1.2 Data Collection 5.1.3 Results 5.2 Main Study 5.2.1 Research Models and Hypotheses 5.2.2 Survey Instrument 5.2.3 Data Collection 5.2.4 Description and Preparation of the Data Basis 5.2.5 Methodological Foundation for the Data Analysis 5.2.6 Data Analysis and Results 6 An Evaluation Concept for ETMs 6.1 Needs Assessment 6.1.1 Definition of Objectives for the ETM Implementation 6.1.2 Evaluation of the Use of ETM Functionalities 6.2 Selection of ETMs 6.2.1 Preselection of ETMs 6.2.2 Detailed Evaluation of Alternative ETMs 6.3 Evaluation of the Business Case 6.3.1 ETM Costs 6.3.2 Business Process Performance Impact 7 Conclusion 7.1 Summary of Results 7.2 Contributions 7.2.1 Managerial Contributions 7.2.2 Scientific Contributions 7.3 Limitations and Future Research Directions References